habamus rodentum

Everyone has the fundamental right to freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication - Canadian Charter of Rights s. 2 (b)

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Ready, willing and blogging

Whoa!

Having looked at the last time I blogged on this blog software - it was almost a year ago and tonnes has happened since then. I've also been contemplating the benefits of anonymous blogging and have realized there is a little more freedom in what I can and will publish . Besides that, I missed the Blogger interface and ease of editing - I've tried two other interfaces and the editing is very poor.

I guess I missed all the hubbub of the last provincial election but I wasn't totally out of the loop. In that year I managed to rid myself of a whole filing cabinet of paperwork and shredded it myself with my little Zellers paper shredder - it took two weeks. I've been lugging around stuff for too many years like 1992 income tax returns, all my LAN notes from school and other totally irrelevant material.

Looking back, habamusrodentum appeared to have an impact in politics and social change even though I considered it guerrilla blogging. At the time I wasn't sure about blogging but I had too many other fights going on, which blogging on it may have helped. Or not.

I was just reading a recent article in the Hamilton Spectator about the where-abouts of Former Deputy Prime Minister Tony Valeri. The Stoney Creek News had been months ahead of them indicating he was going to concentrate on his position on the Board of Trustees at St. Joseph's Hospital, which the Hamilton Spectator failed to include in their recent article. (St. Joe's webpage on 'Ethical Fundraising' wasn't available at this writing)

One of the on-going issues I've been trying to deal with over the last year is getting missing notes considered medical records (McInerney v. MacDonald, S.C.C., 1992) from St. Joseph's hospital. Having made numerous requests in writing to Marie Lynch, the Chief Governance and Corporate Services officer (at the time the Chief Privacy Officer) in 2004 & 2005, she did not respond in writing as to their where-abouts in the 30 day time frame according to section 55 of the Personal Health Information and Protection Act. To this date neither has MargDoma the hospital's Risk Manager and it's almost officially 3 years. According to section 72 of the same Act, it's considered an offense for doing so.

But don't ask Chief Brian Mullan to lay an information under that offense clause under that Act. Despite himself and his officers being police officers able to take an information under the Provincial Offenses Act, he never followed up on his promise to me last October 5 2006 when I sat in his office with former Deputy Chief Tom Marlor. The Hamilton Police Service aren't strangers to scandal. Even though the Attorney General has written indicating that it's the responsibility of police officers to take an information, I think Chief Mullan's sitting on St. Joseph's Foundation board has something to do with it. Hamilton appears to be the City of Conflicts.

Now, I was reading over another Stoney Creek News story which quoted Conservative Deputy House Leader Jason Kenney (remember the last election?) on why Tony Valeri should be investigated by the former Ethics Commissioner as reported in the Stoney Creek News at the time, particularly with respect to the his stating the property was recreational. Habamusrodentum posted a story in the National Post listing all the politicians that had 'questionable' properties or financial assets. It noted Valeri's property being listed as recreational when it was actually being built right on his existing property.

Nothing in any article said anything about where the building permit was to allow this, but Hamilton has been having some difficulties in the building permit area - like not issuing them. As for the ethics follow-up, the Ethics Commissioner was removed from his position after the election for his inability to follow a Code of Ethics of his own but mostly he was perceived not to be enforcing Parliament's mandate.

And that's only one instance. A letter that was posted here to the former Attorney General of Ontario, The Law Foundation of Ontario and the Law Society of Upper Canada had an impact on how the public can access law libraries in Ontario. Although not publicized - any further complaints from the public to the Law Foundation of Ontario about the refusal of the public to use a law library will advance another inquiry.

Other well known bloggers have cited HR and government officials were happy to have participated in some stories. (Yes, they knew they were going to be interviewed by the intrepid HR)

Despite my reservations, blogging really does seem to have had a social effect, which is really the whole point of the matter isn't it? So over the last year I've had time to do more research (legal), take care of some outstanding issues that are still outstanding, get my kid off to college and attempt to change the world...

So stay tuned and welcome back because the next posts will offer insights that the main stream media has chosen to leave out of print. I also predicted that there would be another federal election in two years and it's getting close to The Hour of our Discontent.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

The Mob: History Connects to OPP

In honour of OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino and his lack of understanding of Ontario's Occupational Health and Safety Act and his threats to pull his officers out of Caledonia in case they get hurt because a protester wants to peacefully protest - I thought I'd come back to HR after such a long hiatus to repost this article. (Sorry folks - I got distracted from other blogs and other local political and legal stuff that I lost interest in posting for awhile).

This is what the Act says:

The right to stop dangerous work does not apply to police, firefighters or those employed in correctional institutions [section 14(2)(a)].

Even the Minister of Labour confirmed it in a letter he sent to me but to show a lack of Liberal leadership he left it to me to make a complaint instead of looking into it himself.

If we can go back a few years when Julian Fantino was the Chief of Police with the City of London's police service, he was throwing his weight around then by arresting peaceful protesters making their displeasure known about the drastic cuts to medical services at London Health Sciences Centres. When I'm able to get a copy of that back issue I'll be back here posting it.

Let's not forget that Fantino got his position with the OPP by a good friend of his former Crown Attorney and convicted money launderer Peter Shoniker - who was arrested after an RCMP sting to get him to launder money taken from the pensions of the United Steelworkers in Hamilton. Apparently there was an elected city counselor that was involved and they weren't from Toronto...

Updated September 21, 2006: here is a report to compliment the KPMG Report linked below.

It's called 'Medicine in Ontario Needs Glasnost'a review to the Government of Ontario by the Health Professions Regulatory Advisory Council. Here is an excerpt, which I would consider very serious - but I know it happens because I have two personal experiences with obstruction of justice with the CPSO - the most recent was earlier this year in 2006.

In at least one case "there was prima facie evidence that CPSO officials may have committed the criminal offence of obstructing justice by repeatedly misleading the Executive Committee as to the true state of the evidence in this case". In the remaining cases Mr. Code found "evidence of abuse and misuse of power", "systemic unfairness and repeated abuse and misuse of power", and "a consistent pattern of unfairness

Updated September 2, 2005 - link to KPMG Report below

Since the subject of organized crime is circulating the blogosphere, I might as well add this little tidbit.

While taking a break from preparation of my C.E.D.A.W submission in 2002, I engaged in a hallway talk of wisdom my neighbour Mr. G seeing there wasn't a water cooler in the near vicinity. Mr. G knew I was busy researching in the library archives so he suggested during a deep discussion of the economics of war, to see if I could find an article in the Toronto Telegram about a student who published his thesis on the intention of the John Birch Society's plan to break up Canada.

Now this article apparently appeared in the Toronto Telegram in the early 70's, so that meant I had to look up months of microfiche over a period of two years. I didn't find that one but I did find an article in the June 5, 1970 publication on O.P.P Commissioner Eric Silk (born in Hamilton) and O.P.P Superintendent Wilson from London, Ontario.

It turned out that Commissioner Silk and Superintendent Wilson had links to George Duke, an associate of John Papalia crime family of the Hamilton Mafia. The article described how all four met at Duke's estate in Oakville for an 'open house' on lawn maintenance equipment.

Duke also attended the wedding of Wilson's daughter and flew up from Fort Lauderdale in order not to miss it.

Now the Paplia crime family of Hamilton had another associate named Paola Violi who married the daughter of Giacomo Luppino who was the most influential "N'drangheta members in Ontario" (see The Mafia of Montreal). Giancomo Luppino was a close friend to Cosa Nostra boss Stefano Magaddino, cousin to Joseph Bonanno.

In 1997, John 'Pops' Papalia, a made member of the Joseph Todaro Cosa Nostra family of Buffalo, was gunned down in front of his office in Hamilton, Ontario.

Paola Violi also had a Hell's Angels connection and of course, our own former Minister of Public Works Alphonso Gagliano is alleged to be a "made man" in the Bonanno crime family of New York although it is not proven.

Back to O.P.P Commissioner Silk. He retired from the O.P.P in or around 1973 and became the President of the Medico-Legal Society of Toronto. He died in 2004.

I have no other details regarding any further investigation in Commissioner Silk's ties to Mafia associates since then, although I attempted to see if I could get more information from the Hamilton detachment of the R.C.M.P., but they were not able to elaborate, only that the officer I spoke to remembered the events covered in the newspaper at the time.

C.S.I.S wasn't able to comment on any information and if they had any, it would be classified.

I don't know what exactly the Medico-Legal Society of Toronto does but apparently it has something to do with helping doctors write insurance claims for accidents as one example. In any case they deal with the Law Society of Upper Canada (LSUC) and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO).

The reason I find this society intriguing because of the two largest and powerful organizations in Ontario are the self-governed and self-policing Law Society of Upper Canada and the College of Physicians and Surgeon's of Ontario.

This article on R.C.M.P Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli'spress conferenceinto organized crime infiltrating Parliament (seeHansard) seems to tie a few things together when it's compared to what is now happening in our government, especially when he was so open to suggest that "criminal groups are focusing on Parliament, the courts and other institutions with the aim of destabilizing the political system."

Now compare this article and the current events with my post of May10 and April 29.

The KPMG Final Report of the Review of the CPSO Complaints and Discipline Process commissioned by Elizabeth Witmer, the Minister of Health in July 2000 is posted here.

This report documents, amongst other concerns, that 71% of Ontarian's complaints about physicians are dismissed and 81% are dismissed without logical rationale.

What is most concerning is on page 33 the CPSO is using a standard of evidence higher than the civil standard. The Regulated Health Professions Act states the the College is to use the civil standard. KPMG reports that the CPSO justifies this higher standard in the case of Bernstein (Ontario Divisional Court 1977) but the judgement clearly defines the standard as civil.

There is a more concerning adjacent story that goes along with this report, which will be posted at a later date. I am also in the process of confirming the Commissioner Zaccardelli's 2000 news conference with RCMP and any subsequent reports that are publicly available.

This conference was confirmed by Commissioner Zaccardelli's office but there is no indication of it on the RCMP's website. I was referred to a criminal intelligence website but it did not clarify that organized crime was infiltrating parliaments, only in developing countries. I was told by the public relation's office that anything else would have to be requested through freedom of information.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Government Scientist Charged Criminally

The following from the Seattle Post Intelligencer is another example of something that doesn't happen in Canada - our medical practioners are too professional and pure of heart to do anything criminal so much so the Canadian and Ontario governments don't believe it's necessary to enforce health legislation or investigate fraud.

Now if you believe that your not understanding sarcasm and irreverence. You can see how well our provincial politicos care about the health of Ontarians here in this recent Auditor's report.

Here's an excerpt from that:

The Ministry established a Fraud Program Branch in 1998 to promote health-fraud awareness. Althouh the Branch is staffed with Ontario Provinical Police detective inspectors and fraud examiners, it has never had a mandate to conduct fraud audits, nor has it had access to health records that would allow it to conduct fraud monitoring activities, and no suspected fraud cases have ever been referred to this Branch.

With a rare criminal case against a senior federal researcher, prosecutors are sending a message to scientists on the government payroll: Making money from companies on the side can land you in big trouble.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

California DoJ Investigates Big Pharma for Bribes

Will we see an investigation for questionable marketing practices in Ontario? Probably not. Will the Ontario Securities and Exchange Commission start investigating their arm of these big Pharma companies for giving monetary remuneration to health care providers who prescribe anti-psychotics when they shouldn't be prescribed just to increase their sales and their value on the stock market? Probably not.

The Ontario Securities and Exchange Commission, the Ontario Provincial Police or the RCMP didn't follow up on the YBM scandal (see post below) from the Russian mafia putting up a bogus company on the Toronto Stock Exchange to launder it's money that implicated a number of politicians. Ontario's municipal police forces don't even want to co-operate and take an information when it comes to obstruction of justice by the investigtors of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario so expecting the CPSO to monitor bribes given to doctors from big pharma's marketers or investigating conflicts of interest is a useless and futile act.

I'm not sure if you can believe that OHIP is actually investigating the psychiatry out patient research programs for diagnosis fraud at St. Joseph's Hospital in Hamilton. It's probably just lip service by the Ministry of Health.

The California Securities and Exchange Commission has requested documents from the makers of Zyprexa (Eli Lily) and Seroquil (AstraZeneca) to look at their marketing practices and selling drugs to people who shouldn't be on them, which should be investigated here in Ontario - particularly Hamilton.

Canada's big Pharma should be investigated in Ontario as well as the policitians and Colleges that turn a blind eye to members and non-members of Colleges who use psychological tests from California that diagnose mental illness without benefit of having Canadian norms or provinical standards of testing.

California's drug marketing doesn't vary from state to state so that should mean that it doesn't vary from the United States into Canada or Ontario either just as these the selling of these psychological tests don't vary.

At least three pharmaceutical companies, AstraZeneca PLC, Eli Lilly & Co. and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., have disclosed they received subpoenas from the California attorney general's office seeking information about their respective anti-psychotics. The drugs are approved to treat bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

Eli Lilly, which makes Zyprexa, and AstraZeneca, maker of Seroquel, indicated that the subpoenas received in September sought information about their marketing practices for the anti-psychotics, as well as the drugs' status on California's "formulary," or list of preferred drugs for a state insurance program.

Lilly of Indianapolis said in a regulatory filing Friday its subpoena was related to "our efforts to obtain and maintain Zyprexa's status on California's formulary." Also, Lilly said the subpoena concerned "remuneration of health care providers." AstraZeneca of Britain disclosed its subpoena in a document posted on its Web site last week.

New York-based Bristol-Myers "has received a subpoena from the California state Department of Justice seeking documents in connection with Abilify," spokesman Craig Stoltz told Dow Jones Newswires Friday. "Bristol-Myers is cooperating with the investigation." California's attorney general heads the state justice department. Additional details including the timing or exact nature of Bristol's subpoena weren't immediately available.

Tom Dressler, a spokesman for the California attorney general, confirmed subpoenas were issued to AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly but declined to comment about Bristol-Myers. He said the office is "trying to get more information about the marketing of these specific products and their status on the Medi-Cal formulary," referring to the state insurance program.

Marketers of other anti-psychotics, including Johnson & Johnson of New Brunswick, N.J. and Pfizer Inc. of New York, couldn't immediately be reached.

Newer anti-psychotics have become big moneymakers for drug companies, with Zyprexa posting $4.2 billion in sales and Seroquel generating $2.76 billion last year. Abilify, a newer drug, posted sales of $912 million in 2005.

But the drugs also have faced scrutiny over their effectiveness and safety. One government-funded study released earlier this year found that an older drug, clozapine, was more effective in treating certain patients with schizophrenia than three newer drugs: Zyprexa, Seroquel, and J&J's Risperdal. Clozapine is sold under the brand Clozaril by Novartis AG of Switzerland.

In another government-funded study, an older anti-psychotic called perphenazine was found to have similar effectiveness to three newer ones: Risperdal, Seroquel and Pfizer's Geodon. This study showed Zyprexa to be more effective than the other drugs, but also linked it to more weight gain and higher blood sugar.

Last year, Lilly established a $690 million fund to settle lawsuits that generally alleged Zyprexa led to diabetes or related problems in people taking the drug. The company said the claims were without merit.

J&J has previously inquiries from federal investigators over its marketing of Risperdal, according to regulatory filings. J&J said it was cooperating and responding to the subpoenas.

More recently, a study concluded there was little benefit of using anti-psychotics to treat symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, despite the relatively common practice of doctors prescribing the drugs for that use.

AstraZeneca said last week it's in the initial stages of responding to the California request for information, but a spokeswoman declined further comment.

Lilly indicated in its regulatory filing it couldn't predict the outcome of the matter, and that it could hurt the company's financials. A Lilly spokesman couldn't immediately be reached.

Pfizer and Lilly have received subpoenas from the California attorney general related to antipsychotic promotional practices, the firms told "The Pink Sheet" DAILY.

Lilly, which markets Zyprexa (olanzapine), disclosed in a Nov. 3 Securities & Exchange Commission filing that the California AG subpoena, received in September, is "seeking production of documents related to our efforts to obtain and maintain Zyprexa's status on California's formulary, marketing and promotional practices with respect to Zyprexa, and remuneration of health care providers."

Geodon (ziprasidone) marketer Pfizer confirmed it had also received a subpoena in September from the California AG.

Lilly and Pfizer are the latest drug makers to come under scrutiny regarding antipsychotic promotional practices. The attorneys general for California and Alaska launched separate inquiries into AstraZeneca's marketing of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder treatment Seroquel (quetiapine) in September (1"The Pink Sheet" DAILY, Oct. 30, 2006).

Lilly's marketing practices for Zyprexa do not vary from state to state, the company told "The Pink Sheet" DAILY.

According to the SEC filing, Lilly has "implemented and [will] continue to review and enhance a broadly based compliance program that includes comprehensive compliance-related activities designed to ensure that our marketing and promotional practices, physician communications, remuneration of health care professionals, managed care arrangements, and Medicaid best-price reporting comply with applicable laws and regulations."

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Sunday, October 29, 2006

Monte Kwinter and Russian Mob

Here a listing of stories from various Canadian newspapers that links a number of Canadian politicians to the Russian mafia. The politicians aren't just Liberals, but Mulroney PC's.

These articles are from 1999 - 7 years ago. I don't know whether David Peterson was charged or not for securities fraud for being involved with YBM a company run by the Russian mafia.

He's still involved in politics so I take it Ontario hasn't done much to make sure white collar criminals do the time when they do the crime...

And it appears here that Monte Kwinter doesn't quite get the fact that it's his responsibility to make sure law enforcement enforces the laws of the land...but is playing word games instead of showing that he is serious about fighting crime.